The use of rollers within the multifaceted steel industry is not new. Rollers, for example, are employed for both containing the product, as is exemplified in the area of continuous casting, as well as re-sizing heated slab products into thinner and thinner sheets in a hot strip mill. In almost all cases, the rollers employed are usually of massive proportions with analogously sized bearings, housings and additional supportive components. The size of the rollers and their associated support elements dictate that their replacement and maintenance costs are also equally large.
In order to minimize costs associated with maintaining and rebuilding these elements, as well as the expense of downtime while no product may be produced, attempts have been made to provide efficient, inexpensive and easily maintained sealing arrangements for the roller assemblages. The success with which such attempts have met is dictated, in part, by the environment in which the rollers and their associated supportive elements operate. For instance, scale, dirt, heat and fillings constantly assault the rollers, bearings and seals, thereby making maintenance rather difficult. The matters of ubiquitous scale, dirt and heat are complicated by the deficiencies inherent in most of the sealing designs currently employed for protecting rollers, bearings and the like. Difficulties of seal failure were encountered with these designs following relatively short operating times. As the seals failed the contaminantes noted above were allowed to enter and attack the bearings which led to their subsequent failure. Once the bearings failed, the total roller assembly had to be replaced, thereby resulting in downtime for replacement and the added expense of rebuilding the bearing boxes and associated equipment. Such costs may only be fully appreciated when it is considered that the bearing boxes for most rollers applicants have been associated with are of a size not dissimilar to a small room. Accordingly, it was necessary and desirable to provide for a sealing arrangement which would efficiently seal the massive rollers in the seal degrading environment such elements are forced to operate.